Pictured: award-winning photographer who died in Hampstead Heath ladies' pond

A woman who died while swimming in the ladies’s pond on Hampstead Heath was an award-winning photographer.

Ms Ahlburg, 50, from Holborn, is thought to have had a heart condition.

She was born in Stockholm and took up photography at an early age. After moving to London she studied photography at Central School of Art.

One swimmer, who did not wish to be named, said: “She had a heart condition. Her boyfriend is devastated and we are all very upset.

“In no way can the lifeguards be blamed, they are fantastic here.”

Her portraits have been commissioned by musicians, artists, record companies including Decca, EMI, Chandos and Hyperion, and publications including BBC Music Magazine and The Wall Street Journal.

Ms Ahlburg, who was a regular at the outdoor ponds, went swimming in the water some time on Sunday, but it was only after the pond closed at 8.30pm that the the alarm raised.

She was reported missing by family and police launched a search at about 10.30pm that night. Police divers eventually recovered her body around 3pm yesterday. Swimmers at the pond today said the conditions were not dangerous.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: “Police discovered the body of a woman believed to be aged approximately 50 years in the ladies’ bathing pond of Hampstead Heath.”

The ladies pond has been closed until further to allow an investigation to be carried out.

A spokesman for the City of London Corporation, which runs Hampstead Heath, said: “We are currently assisting police with enquiries into the circumstances of this very sad death. The swimming community on the Heath is a very close one and our thoughts go out to the family and friends who have been affected by this news”.

At this time of year bathers are only permitted to remain in the ladies’ pond, which is monitored by lifeguards, until 8.30pm, and must have left the facility by 8.45pm.